10. In the Event of an Air Raid Words and Music by John Close
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John Close’s comic song[1] is a wonderful combination of the panic and self-importance aroused in various vociferous members of the community when faced with the horror of being bombed. Representatives of the Buckinghamshire Education Committee and from Wolverton’s Air Raid Precautions (ARP) along with local schoolchildren and their parents - all create a conflicted clamour of what must be done ‘in the event of an air raid’, culminating with them all in a final anarchic verse which is not repeated in the score!
The scene features in the community documentary musical drama Sheltered Lives, an evocative picture of Wolverton and New Bradwell life in the 1930s and ‘40s with its script and songs based on local logbooks, minutes and memories. This particular song ends abruptly – as originally recorded by the Wolverton School Headteacher exasperated by the cacophony of differing opinions: ‘This will not do! We cannot cope with this congestion. At a time when dispersal is the one great necessity, we have created a situation here where 50 parents and 700 children are massed together in one place. The atmosphere is fearful and the strain on my staff, enormous. In future parents are asked not to crowd the doorways, the stair and corridor, for this is a great hindrance and impedes the movement of other children.’ The local Air Raid Warden also has a key part in the song, trying to generate order. The ARP service was introduced nationally two years before the outbreak of war with volunteers assigned to patrol the streets and ensure blackout. In Wolverton, ARP Frank Brown faithfully kept a Minute Book from 1941 which recorded such items as requests for stirrup pumps to tackle fires, or training sessions on phosphorous, incendiary or flying bombs. Air Raid Wardens were also expected to organise Rescue Parties, Decontamination Squads and First-Aiders – in effect, to be in charge in the event of an air-raid! Residents shared their experiences of such a role for a Living Archive MK exhibition[2]: ‘Father was in charge of an area for the ARP, and he used to go on Sunday mornings doing this … because I remember he borrowed my bicycle on the first occasion and I’d never seen him on a bicycle. We all went to the front room thinking he’d fall off it, but he didn’t.’ Audrey Lambert ‘I remember the Air Raid Warden riding down the road on his bike with his tin hat on, peddling like fury and blowing on his whistle when there was an air-raid.’ Jane Jeavons ‘My Dad was in the Home Guard. He was working shifts as a Chief Hand Stoker. He’d work all day and then have to go and do his stint in the Home Guard.’ Dorothy Hendry ‘Our house in Greenfield Road was used as an ARP Subpost, because we had the only telephone in the street! A siren was fitted to our house, and we had to take the telephone message from the local authority when an air raid was imminent. The siren had to be sounded by my parents - or if my parents were not there, we children had to do it, and we loved it!’ John Dunbabin [1] A download is supplied of the 1983 live performance from the cast of Sheltered Lives on the MK Song Book website. [2] See the Discover MK Exhibition panels on the Home Front: Homefront - Discover Milton Keynes Exhibition Showcase |
Local Wolverton schoolchildren ready for an air raid practice
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